A Carolina rig is designed for floating worms and lizards where the little plastic critters appear to swim up off the bottom where most Texas rigs tend to hang. Picture this: a 2/0 or 3/0 worm hook attached to an 18-inch leader attached to a swivel attached to your fishing line. Now, before you attach the swivel to your fishing line, slip a 1/2 to 1 oz. weight and a 1/4 to 3/8-inch plastic or glass bead onto the line. In other words, the weight and bead will be above the swivel and free to slide up your line. The final order of components should be line, weight, bead, swivel, leader and hook.

    When you fish the Carolina rig, you pull the weight along the bottom to cause a disturbance there. You also make a clacking sound by twitching your rod tip to make the weight bang against the glass bead (the bead protects the knot at the swivel). This should attract big bass which will see your floating plastic trailing behind the disturbance and sound. The concept here is the bass will sneak up on the plastic critter which is sneaking up on something hugging the bottom.

    The leader should be a lesser strength than the line. If the hook gets hung up, and you have to break something, the leader will give out before the line. That way, you'll lose the hook and plastic, but you'll save the weight, bead and swivel. The length of the leader should also be adjusted so the plastic floats just over the tops of the weed cover on the bottom.